Sliding side vehicle doors are known. However, current designs are complex and limited in their applicability. For example, some current designs utilize connection mechanisms near the vehicle floor. However, this type of connection is not well-suited for use in an electric vehicle which stores a battery below the vehicle floor. Other designs use externally visible tracks or rollers which are not visually appealing or applicable to smaller vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,461, entitled “Hinge Mechanism for a Sliding Door,” describes a hinge assembly for coupling a sliding door of a vehicle to a drive unit for sliding the sliding door from an open position to a closed position, where the drive unit causes the hinge assembly to slide within a guide track as the door moves between an open position and a closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 7,950,719, entitled “Vehicle Dual Hinge Rear Door Articulating and Sliding System,” describes a vehicle rear door articulating and sliding mechanism which includes an articulating hinge assembly having a hinge arm pivotally mounted to a vehicle C-pillar at one end thereof, a vehicle rear door pivotally and slideably mounted to the hinge arm at an opposite end of the hinge arm, and a guide arm attached to the vehicle rear door and slideably engaged with a guide track mounted to a vehicle roof, which function together to rotate a sliding door and move the door into an open position. U.S. Pat. No. 7,798,557, entitled “Vehicle Unguided Four-Bar Rear Door Articulating and Sliding Mechanism,” describes a vehicle rear door articulating and sliding mechanism comprising a four-bar mechanism of unequal arm lengths, pivotally connected at one end to the C-pillar of a vehicle body and at the other end to the vehicle rear door, where the vehicle rear door is configured to slide backward relative to the vehicle body once the four-bar mechanism is extended, and wherein the vehicle rear door rotates as it is moved into the open position. U.S. Pat. No. 8,511,738, entitled “Dual Hinged Vehicle Door,” describes a dual hinged door assembly for a vehicle that includes an upper door portion and a lower door portion.